Punk!

We went to Salisbury this weekend. It was rainy, because, well, it's in England. We had a great time. There's nothing quite like leaving the computer at home. We stayed at The Swan at Stoford - a little inn with a pub on the A36. It was friendly, the food was pretty good if a bit variable, and most excitingly, they had a skittle alley. Now, I had never heard of skittles, except for the candy. But it makes sense that bowling has a non-mechanised origin, and I guess this is it - a ball is rolled down an alley toward some wooden pins, though the alley is not as long as a bowling alley. Then you have to go down to the other end, pick up the balls, and put them into a hole, and the balls roll down to the other end through a long gently-sloped tunnel. Nina wasn't too keen on knocking the pins down but the fascination of the long tunnel had no end. One of us had to follow her down the alley with our own ball, and put it in the hole after hers. Then we'd run hand in hand ("fast! mummy fast!") back to the start, and Nina would inevitably startle with an "oh!" when the ball rolled out. This provided hours of indoor entertainment for all three of us.

We also saw Stonehenge, at which Nina was thrilled to be invited on to an actual bus, and a purple one at that. It was awaiting the return of its passengers (a bus! with wheels! and seats! and seat belts!). The next thrill finding a little hill to run up and down a zillion times. I think she liked the stones too.













Then we went to the New Forest and walked around in the novel sunshine, amidst wild ponies. It was great. We had sunday lunch (nut roast, what else) at a lovely pub with a slide, and came home.



Her language is changing all the time. One reason I wanted to start blogging is to remember the cute things she says because eventually she'll learn how to pronounce things the way we do (or in some cases, the way English people do). The latest is "pants", which English people pronounce "trousers". But Nina says "punk". It's hilarious, mostly because she'll spill something, and then wander around saying "wet punk! wet punk! dirty punk. Dirty Punk!". "MY punk!".